The 3-Minute Thesis Competition challenges Ph.D. students to describe their thesis work clearly and engagingly in just 3 minutes! On April 14th we invited the Yale community to cheer on this year’s 11 finalists in this live-streamed celebration of Ph.D. research. At the Loria Hall event, finalists delivered their presentations live to both an in-person and virtual audience of more than 200.
During the event, Julia Istomina (Associate Director of the Graduate Writing Lab) announced recipients of the Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning’s Public Communications Certificate, including 9 of our 2022 finalists! In addition, members of the audience were invited to cast their votes to select winners for two People’s Choice awards.
This year’s esteemed panel of judges included:
Lynn Cooley, Dean of the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Jenny Rooke ’98 Ph.D., Managing Director, Genoa Ventures and Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Max Golts, ‘99 Ph.D., Chief Investment Officer, 4X4invest
Andrea Levitt, ‘78 Ph.D., Professor Emerita of French and Linguistics, Wellesley College
Meet the 2022 3MT Winners
*TIE* First Place – Diondra Dilworth (Chemistry): The Ribosome: Modifiable Machine – A Chemist’s Approach
*TIE* First Place – Kimmy Cushman (Physics): Dark Matter: The Mysteries of Mass
Third Place – Carson Koepke (Medieval Studies): Centering Saints’ Lives in Medieval Studies
People’s Choice Award: Best in Humanities & Social Sciences – Demar Lewis (Sociology & African American Studies): “Walk it Like We Talk It”: Reimagining Community Safety in the United States
People’s Choice Award: Best in STEM – Aritra Ghosh (Astronomy): Black Holes: Ruthless Destroyers or Formative Gravitational Beasts?
You can view all of our finalists’ videos via the Office of Career Strategy YouTube channel.
Yale’s 3-Minute Thesis Competition is sponsored by the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association. It is a collaboration between the offices of the McDougal Graduate Student Center: The Poorvu Center for Teaching & Learning, the Graduate Writing Lab, Graduate Student Life, the Office for Graduate Student Development & Diversity, and the Office of Career Strategy.
Yale’s event is modeled on the 3-Minute Thesis Competition founded by the University of Queensland. 3MT competitions are now held at over 600 universities and institutions across 65 countries around the world.
